You probably heard it, you definitely saw it on our website. Some units have a word “separate” in its name.
Ukrainian Armed Forces have two types of military units – linear and separate. They differ in terms of operational and structure.
Operational differences
Linear units don’t have a military number and cannot have, by the law, their own officially approved insignia. All linear units are required to use the insignia of the parent unit. Linear units are usually deployed to the area of the parent’s responsibilities. Separate units can be detached from the parent and assigned to a different unit for a certain period of time.
Last but not least, linear units are housed at the garrison of their parent unit. Separate units have their own, and it can far away from the headquarters of the parent unit. We can take 58th Motorized Brigade as the example. The headquarters of the brigade is located in Konotop, and the subordinated separate battalions are based in Voronizh, Stetskivka and Hlukiv.
Structure differences
Linear units rely on the parent unit for necessary support and logistics. On the other hand, separate units need to have all necessities to survive on its own for a certain period of time. That means artillery, logistics, and other support elements.
Russian full-scale invasion in 2022
The full scale invasion and quick expansion of Ukrainian Ground Forces caught the command unprepared for such situations. Linear units were suddenly detached from their parent brigades and deployed to support other units, many times hundreds of kilometers away from the rest of their brigade. This led to a mess, which hasn’t been resolved until today, and many brigades continue to work on a battalion level.
A similar situation arose in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and invaded Donbas. Ukrainian Army, unable to muster full-fledged brigades, formed battalion tactical groups (BTG) instead.
Mentioned Units |
No unit mentioned.
Now I understand why there are so many steps between units
Separate battalions seem more flexible, but in a complex conflict they complicate both coordination and logistics.
Given the shortage of men, is it possible for the separate battalions to be transformed into linear ones?
What is the point about linear battalions not being allowed their own insignia? If linear battalions are not allowed to have their own insignia by law, all linear battalion insignia shown here on this webpage would have to be illegal. Is that correct? Enforcing such a ban would certainly be bad for morale. In Germany, for example, there are official and internal insignia. Both are worn officially.
This is interesting, thanks!
FYI, there are multiple instances of a grammatical mistake: